First Peter 5 is one of the earliest textual witnesses where church leaders are called “shepherds”. While kings and leaders were often called shepherds in the ancient Near East and the Old Testament (1 Chr 11:2; 17:6; Ezek 37:24), at the core of this imagery in the Bible is a kind of shepherding that moves from spiritual sobriety to stupendous eternity.

Let’s consider 1 Peter 5. The need for spiritual oversight (5:2) suggests some sort of spiritual danger besetting the “flock” (poimnion), a term which always refers to God’s people. A similar picture is seen in Acts 20:29, where Paul predicts that wolves will come into the church and attack the flock. Then in 1 Peter 5:8, we see the devil as a lion prowling for an opportunity to pounce. This opportunity presents itself the moment the shepherd (and the flock) is spiritually distracted. The sad reality is that the devil-lion is better at watching our spiritual condition than most unsuspecting pew-warmers.?

But let’s put this spiritual danger in context. Christian suffering is a major theme in the whole of 1 Peter. Because Christians neither bowed down to gods nor worshipped the Roman emperor, they disrupted the social fabric of the day and were viewed as troublemakers. At one level, the suffering involves being socially ostracized and economically discriminated against. Understandably, there is immense pressure to assimilate and go with the flow. But at another level, Christian suffering involves continually doing what is good within such a hostile atmosphere (2:12–18).?

So, living under the contingent power of the devil and the world’s value systems, the spiritual danger for the Christian is this: when the pastor is no longer discerning God’s leading and praying for the flock; when the elder capitulates to the ‘best’ of worldly wisdom; when the flock is no longer sensitized to sin, whether hidden or rationalized, and is no longer watching to repent each day; when the flock decides to have both God and Mammon—that’s when the devil-lion bites.?

With this spiritual danger in mind, Peter shows us three ways to shepherd: willingly, eagerly, and exemplarily (5:2–3). These are not your typical top-ten leadership qualities promoted in bestsellers. These are characteristics that resist self-servitude and recalibrate us to what is of true value.?

Pastors must lead via a willing, self-mortifying process to be more like the Chief Shepherd whom the sheep must follow. Pastors are to shepherd Christians of every age, class, and gender so that they will live out their Christian life in and through this world, not out of it. Christian wives, husbands, children, servants, merchants, masters, soldiers are to be holy (1:15–16; 3:15) and suffer for it (3:16–18). Pastors must live out lives as partakers of the stupendous eternal glory, and testify to God’s power in suffering, which Christians endure for only a little while in comparison to the eternal glory they will receive in Christ. All of this is the “true grace of God” (5:10–12).

How should we pastor our church, family, or cell group amid spiritual danger? The Christian life and the life of Christ is one of the same. We live spiritual-sober and holy-redemptive lives so that the flock is saved for the stupendous glory in Christ.?

For Discussion

What is one spiritual danger you have observed in your own life, and how have you allowed that danger to creep into your life? How will you deal with this danger?